Story behind the art of Mary Crabtree
26th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center
Midsummer
Penstemon x mexicali 'Pike's Peak Purple', Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'George Davison', Scrophularia macrantha, Kniphofia 'Mango Popsicle’, Lavandula angustifolia ‘BeeZee Dark Blue', Lavandula x intermedia Phenomenal ('Niko' )
Midsummer in my garden is a riot of color and portraying that was my vision for this painting. Where I live, just east of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, midsummer is July and August. The weather is hot and dry and plants that disdain the cooler, shorter days of spring and fall are in their glory. I wanted to show the plants as though you are gazing across the top of the garden, seeing all the variety at once, so I selected plants of similar height but very different flower and leaf colors and forms. I chose a lightly veined calf-skin vellum as the substrate for the painting because it would impart a warmth that suggested the season and because the luminous character of watercolor on vellum would show off the jewel-tone flower colors. Because of the size of the artwork, the vellum needed to be mounted on board before painting; an anxiety-inducing experience, but it turned out well! On to the painting…
Each plant required a different mix on my palette, not just for the flower colors but for the varied greens of stems and leaves. I like to use the same pigments in mixing greens as I use in other parts of the plant. For example, a blue or yellow that I use in color mixes for the flowers I also use to mix greens for leaves and stems. I think this produces a harmony among the colors for each part of the plant. Additionally, I adjust the green mix for various parts of each plant, adding a bit more yellow or magenta as needed. I mostly used transparent watercolors since I find that semi- and non-transparent paint colors can become ‘muddy’ on vellum. I did test paintings on scraps of vellum to determine the color mixes and techniques I would use. I then painted the plants one at a time, circling back at the end to intensify shadows and clarify edges and overlaps. Each plant had a unique character to be learned and recreated in the painting process.
The violet-purple of the Penstemon x mexicali 'Pike's Peak Purple' flower has luminous undertones that required repeated layering of magenta and violet-blues to achieve. And the underside of the flower is lighter with violet-red ‘bee track’ markings, adding another level of complexity.
Painting yellows can be a bit daunting, so for the glowing, orange to golden-yellow flowers and buds of Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'George Davison', I focused on creating form without dulling the color by using a small amount of permanent rose in the shaded areas. Also key for this plant were the blue-green, iris-like leaves with their long, parallel veins.
Scrofularia macrantha, commonly called red birds in a tree, was a joy to get to know and illustrate. The flowers are a bright, cool red that stands out beautifully against its lively green stems and leaves. This plant has small, slightly ‘pillowed’, irregularly toothed leaves that cluster at the lower branching nodes, so there were many considerations of light, shadow, and overlap to portray them clearly.
I included two stages of the Kniphofia 'Mango Popsicle' inflorescence in the painting: the immature stage with its greenish-yellow-mango flowers and the more mature flowers in radiant, mango-orange. Therefore, I had to do multiple color matches and test paintings. This plant challenged me to show the color changes from the base to the tip of each flower, the shadows cast by the overlapping flowers, and the conical shape of the inflorescence as a whole.
Lastly, the two lavenders were delightful to study. Both have angular stems and soft greyish-green leaves for which the addition of a bit of semi-transparent Davy’s gray was just the ticket. Lavandula angustifolia ‘Beezee dark blue’ has lush, dark, bluish-purple buds and flowers, while those of Lavandula x intermedia ‘Niko’ PHENOMENAL are a light lavender color; again, multiple mixes and testing.
I love painting minute detail and these six plants gave me plenty of that to focus on. Possibly my favorite parts were things like the tips of the Kniphofia inflorescences, the Crocosmia stamens and anthers, and the wandering, dried styles of the maturing Penstemon ovaries. Going over them now one by one it seems as though there were six paintings rather than just one. By combining them into a single composition, mingling their varied shapes and colors, I feel that I achieved my goal of bringing my midsummer garden to life on the vellum for others to experience.
Next Story
Back to List
Read more about this artist’s work: 25th Annual